Explaining away the negative effects of evaluation on analogical transfer: the perils of premature evaluation

Four experiments explored effects on analogical transfer of evaluating solutions to base problems. In contrast to reports of positive effects of explanation, evaluation consistently reduced transfer rates and impaired mental representations of base material. This effect was not ameliorated by encoding for a later memory test, summarizing, or engaging in similar processes at encoding and recall. However, providing a prior explanation task removed the inhibitory effect of evaluation. It appears that evaluation leads to encoding of extraneous material that interferes with access to solution-critical analogous information. Prior explanation inoculates against negative effects on transfer by ensuring that new information introduced via evaluation is organized around existing representations of relevant information of the base problem. The results suggest that the source of difficulty in analogical transfer may reside not only in retrieval and mapping but also in the initial encoding of problems.     

Changes in trunk orientation do not induce asymmetries in covert orienting

We explored the effect of trunk orientation on responses to visual targets in five experiments, following work suggesting a disengage deficit in covert orienting related to changes in the trunk orientation of healthy participants. In two experiments, participants responded to the color of a target appearing in the left or right visual field following a peripheral visual cue that was informative about target location. In three additional experiments, participants responded to the location (left/right) of a target using a spatially compatible motor response. In none of the experiments did trunk orientation interact with spatial-cuing effects, suggesting that orienting behavior is not affected by the rotation of the body relative to the head. Theoretical implications are discussed.     

Short-term implicit memory: Visual, auditory, and cross-modality priming

Short-term implicit memory was examined for mixed auditory (A) and visual (V) stimuli. In lexical decision, words and nonwords were repeated at lags of 0, 1, 3, and 6 intervening trials, in four prime-target combinations (VV, VA, AV, AA). Same-modality repetition priming showed a lag x lexicality interaction for visual stimuli (nonwords decayed faster), but not for auditory stimuli (longer lasting smooth decay for both words and nonwords). These modality differences suggest that short-term priming has a perceptual locus, with the phonological lexicon maintaining stimuli active longer than the orthographic lexicon and treating pseudowords as potential words. We interpret these differences in terms of the different memory needs of speech recognition and text reading. Weak cross-modality short-term priming was present for words and nonwords, indicating recoding between perceptual forms.     

Potential Effects of Faking on the NEO-PI-R: Willingness and Ability to Fake Changes Who Gets Hired in Simulated Selection Decisions

The impact of response distortion (faking) on selection decisions was investigated. Participants (N = 224) completed the NEO-PI-R under instructions to “make the most favorable impression” and/or “answer honestly.” Those instructed to fake were often over-represented at the top of the score distributions as instructions to fake resulted in higher scores both between and within groups in a test–retest situation. There was significantly lower correspondence between participants’ honest scores and their faked scores as well as multiple instances where participants with unfavorable honest scores subsequently produced the most favorable scores when faking. Response distortion may remain a serious threat to the use of personality test scores in selection.

Executive function deficits in autism spectrum disorders and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: examining profiles across domains and ages

Deficits in 'executive function' (EF) are characteristic of several clinical disorders, most notably Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In this study, age- and IQ-matched groups with ASD, ADHD, or typical development (TD) were compared on a battery of EF tasks tapping three core domains: response selection/inhibition, flexibility, and planning/working memory. Relations between EF, age and everyday difficulties (rated by parents and teachers) were also examined. Both clinical groups showed significant EF impairments compared with TD peers. The ADHD group showed greater inhibitory problems on a Go-no-Go task, while the ASD group was significantly worse on response selection/monitoring in a cognitive estimates task. Age-related improvements were clearer in ASD and TD than in ADHD. At older (but not younger) ages, the ASD group outperformed the ADHD group, performing as well as the TD group on many EF measures. EF scores were related to specific aspects of communicative and social adaptation, and negatively correlated with hyperactivity in ASD and TD. Within the present groups, the overall findings suggested less severe and persistent EF deficits in ASD (including Asperger Syndrome) than in ADHD.     

On the status of unconscious memory: Merikle and Reingold (1991) revisited

Four experiments are reported that reevaluate P. M. Merikle and E. M. Reingold's (1991) demonstration of unconscious memory: the greater sensitivity to familiarity (repetition) of an indirect (implicit) memory task than of a comparable direct (explicit) task. At study, participants named the cued member of a pair of visually presented words. At test, new and uncued study words were presented against a background mask. Participants judged whether each word was old or new (direct task) or whether the contrast between the word and the background was high or low (indirect task). Contrary to the original findings, the sensitivity of the indirect task to familiarity never exceeded that of the direct task. These findings pose a challenge to a key pillar of evidence for unconscious influences of memory.     

Does aging influence people's metacomprehension? Effects of processing ease on judgments of text learning

In 2 experiments, the authors investigated whether age-related differences exist in metacomprehension by evaluating predictions based on the ease-of-processing (EOP) hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, judgments of how well a text has been learned are based on how easily each text was processed; easier processing results in higher judgments. Participants read either sentence pairs or longer texts and judged their learning of each immediately afterward. Although an age-related difference in the use of processing ease in judgments was observed with sentence pairs, for longer texts older and younger adults' judgments were similarly related to processing ease. In both experiments, age equivalence was also evident in the accuracy of the judgments at predicting performance on the criterion test. The overall pattern of results suggests that judging text learning remains largely intact with aging.     

Statistical classification of black-capped (Poecile atricapillus) and mountain chickadee (Poecile gambeli) call notes

Both black-capped (Poecile atricapillus) and mountain chickadees (Poecile gambeli) produce a chick-a-dee call that consists of several distinct note types. In some regions, these 2 species live sympatrically, and it has been shown that 1 species will respond weakly to songs of the other. This suggests that chickadee song, and potentially other of their vocalizations, contains species-specific information. We tested the possibility that call notes were acoustically sufficient for species identification. Black-capped and mountain non-D notes were summarized as a set of 9 features and then analyzed by linear discriminant analysis. Linear discriminant analysis was able to use these notes to identify species with 100% accuracy. We repeated this approach, but with black-capped and mountain D notes that were summarized as a set of 4 features. Linear discriminant analysis was able to use these notes to identify species with 94% accuracy. This demonstrates that any of the note types in these chickadee calls possesses sufficient information for species classification.     

Manual assisted cognitive treatment for deliberate self-harm in borderline personality disorder patients

This study examines the efficacy of a short-term individual therapy, Manual Assisted Cognitive Treatment (MACT), which was developed to treat parasuicidal (suicidal or self-harming) patients. In this trial, MACT was modified to focus on deliberate self-harm (DSH) in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Thirty BPD patients who were engaged in DSH while in ongoing treatments, i.e., treatment-as-usual (TAU), were randomly assigned to receive MACT (N = 15) or not. DSH and level of suicide ideation were assessed at the baseline, at completion of the MACT intervention, and six months later. Results indicated that MACT was associated with significantly less frequent DSH upon completion of the intervention and with significantly decreased DSH frequency and severity at the six months follow-up. Moreover, MACT's contribution to reducing DSH frequency and severity was greater than the contribution by the amount of concurrent treatments. In contrast, MACT did not affect the level of suicide ideation and time-to-repeat of DSH. In conclusion, MACT seems to be a promising intervention for DSH in patients with BPD. More definitive studies are needed.     

Factors predicting the use of technology: findings from the Center for Research and Education on Aging and Technology Enhancement (CREATE)

The successful adoption of technology is becoming increasingly important to functional independence. The present article reports findings from the Center for Research and Education on Aging and Technology Enhancement (CREATE) on the use of technology among community-dwelling adults. The sample included 1,204 individuals ranging in age from 18-91 years. All participants completed a battery that included measures of demographic characteristics, self-rated health, experience with technology, attitudes toward computers, and component cognitive abilities. Findings indicate that the older adults were less likely than younger adults to use technology in general, computers, and the World Wide Web. The results also indicate that computer anxiety, fluid intelligence, and crystallized intelligence were important predictors of the use of technology. The relationship between age and adoption of technology was mediated by cognitive abilities, computer self-efficacy, and computer anxiety. These findings are discussed in terms of training strategies to promote technology adoption.